Battletech - Also known as Trannytech

[Lithos]

But wait, there's more!

In order to distract the people at home, the Bears go to war with the Kuritas who are basically tied up with the Davions. Naturally the Bears win.

At the end of it all the Bears have beat themselves stupid and lost about 30% of their military, but it's okay because recruitment is up. Basically the Bears are right were they were at the beginning of the book, except now part of Alaric's Star League. Alaric comes out the big winner. At the start he had essentially a rag tag Galaxy of Wolf, Falcon, and Jags on Terra (because he's told the Wolves in the Wolf Empire "good luck!" and the Goons "piss off!") but now he has the Bears at his back.

It's funny because although the Wolves have always been Clan Mary Sue, the Bears have been the favorite Clan of line developers since they showed up and as such they have avoided civil wars, invasions, the worst of the Jihad, getting neutered in the Dark Age, and generally curb stomped via the pen. They've had some setbacks over the years (mainly in losing the bulk of their navy in one engagement but that was how the worldwide scenario played out plus Herb was always going to destroy everyone's navy) and even in their losing they end up gaining territory at the expense of the Dragon.

Adding to that was a political commentator named "Carl Tucker", and immediate deletion of posts on the BG forum that mention the uncanny resemblance.

...as well as directly mentioning any resemblance to the Bears doing a reverse-Brexit.

 

[William Murderface]

And Greta Thunberg doesn't show up at all in the form of Gretchen, a passionate, if inarticulate, social media-savvy AsTech.

No, sir. Not at all.

 

[White Devil]

So Dominions Divided came out over the weekend and the reviews have not been kind, even on the OF where the fanboys lap up anything the writers send down the pike like it's the best thing ever. The whole thing makes no sense at all. As shamelessly stolen from the BT thread on /tg/:

>GBD on the brink of tearing itself apart over joining the Star League or not
>Holds a fair democratic to decide. Barely votes to join by a percentage point
>Alaric refuses them
>All but calls them a bunch of pussies for letting the lower castes have a choice to begin with
>Tells them they can only join if they stomp out the dissenters
>Completely justifies the dissenters fears by doing this
>Spits on the GBDs tradition by doing this
>Instigates GBD into a civil war that tears families apart and destroys a full 3rd of their military by doing this
>GBD is battered and bruised by the end of it, worse off in every possible way
>Everyone agrees that this is Alarics fault
>GBD still joins the Star League
>Clan Wolf takes another W

Someone somewhere mentioned maybe it was the writers trying to "subvert expectations" (and oh, how I truly hate that phrase) and just totally dropped the ball.

Saying once more, everything after FedCom Civil War has been garbage.

 

[William Murderface]

Saying once more, everything after FedCom Civil War has been garbage.

I wouldn't necessarily say everything post-3067 is crap, just a lot of it. Of course a lot of it pre-3067 is crap too. There are some legitimately good ideas in the WizKids/FanPro/CGL pile of stuff, it's just been a lot of it is plagued by poor execution. It doesn't help that the course of the Jihad and the time period between WoB being put down and the start of the Dark Age was determined from on high and left to the writers to figure out how to make it work.

For what it's worth though, I'm working on a sourcebook of sorts from 3025 to 3100 where Hanse and Melissa never marry at all. I've gone back to the original material (e.g MechWarrior RPG, Decision at Thunder Rift, the House sourcebooks) and it is refreshing to see where it all began, how open the setting is, and just how many of the basic premises are long gone. Being Dispossessed was social death sentence and a MechWarrior would do anything to get back in a cockpit, nobility mattered, a Lance alone was enough to cause a world to change hands and if someone sent a battalion or regiment it was a huge undertaking and meant the objective was important, clean water and spare parts were reasons to raid a world, etc.

 

[I'mma real anime gurl]

Those fucking mutts deserve the total annihilation by the Society and the fucking developers of Battletech should beg Blaine to fix the abortion.

 

[White Devil]

I just want more Classic Battletech that isn't garbo like the tie-in novel for Troontech. There's so many smaller stories they could still tell in that era.

 

[Balr0g]

Also I just want to add. Allegedly the Snow Ravens decide to join the new Star League as well. The only Clan that has a fleet of Warships (though a good portion currently in mothballs). Yeah this is sounding ridiculous. I mean on one hand alaric hides behind the wall remnants like a pussy while his realm gets devoured by the Free Worlds League at the same time the Combine and Confederation chomp at the bit that the wall breaks and then this. I guess Clan Hells Horses will be the sacrifce to bring the new League together as that clan hates the Wolves with a passion. And here I thought it would get more interesting this sounds more and more like absolute bullshit. Now I really wish that Tucker Harvell goes full Comstar troll and shutters Terra's communication and manufacturing nodes

 

[BlackDragoons]

Also I just want to add. Allegedly the Snow Ravens decide to join the new Star League as well. The only Clan that has a fleet of Warships (though a good portion currently in mothballs). Yeah this is sounding ridiculous. I mean on one hand alaric hides behind the wall remnants like a pussy while his realm gets devoured by the Free Worlds League at the same time the Combine and Confederation chomp at the bit that the wall breaks and then this. I guess Clan Hells Horses will be the sacrifce to bring the new League together as that clan hates the Wolves with a passion. And here I thought it would get more interesting this sounds more and more like absolute bullshit. Now I really wish that Tucker Harvell goes full Comstar troll and shutters Terra's communication and manufacturing nodes

Its all fun and games till Scorpion Empire pops out of the periphery.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Its all fun and games till Scorpion Empire pops out of the periphery.

And then they get their asses summarily kicked because the Scorpions just can't have nice things.

 

[William Murderface]

To recap:
Wolves: Have about a cluster left (not counting what they abandoned in the Wolf Empire, which includes the remaining WiE forces, that the Mariks are curb stomping. Maybe they end up as WiE 2.0).
Jade Falcons: See above, but substitute Tamar for the FWL.
Smoke Jaguars: A cluster or so. Yeah, they're back after all.
Hell's Horses: Devouring what's left of the Jade Falcon enclave.
Sea Fox: Setting themselves up to be a combination ComStar and Weapons World to everyone.
Ghost Bears: Despite a civil war, they're back to full strength. That's the backbone of the new Star League Army.
Snow Ravens: So far not much has been revealed, but if they join in, that's the Star League Navy.
Goliath Scorpions: They don't care because they are busy with their Periphery Empire.
Wolf's Dragoons: Pissed off because Alaric used them to take Terra and then kicked them to the curb

And based on the snippets of introductions to various TROs and sourcebooks, there is a ilClan and ilKhan in 3250. Who and which clan are still up in the air. It looks like they're setting up to make a new Clans vs. Inner Sphere setting. I suspect that somehow Alaric will never end up dining on ashes, but he will eventually fail and fail in a big way. In the meantime, it's starting to look like we're back to the tired old "one side versus another" paradigm.

What I would have liked to have seen is the RotS fall and Alaric win, but Terra is cinders with all the factories and shipyards being bombed into craters. He says "I'm ilKhan! Bow to me!" and the other Clans say "that's nice" and ignore him. Then someone, and I don't care who, just comes in an wipes out the rest of his ragtag Galaxy. Make it a rebuilt and angry Goons force looking for payback and they wipe each other out in the process for all I care. But the writers would never do that.

I get that history is full of guys with egos who seem to be able to do anything until they fail spectacularly and it all comes crashing down around their ears. Harold Godwinson, Napoleon, Hitler, they all fit that mold. And there is the idea that a space opera like BT just needs outsized plot lines to succeed. But right now it just seems like it's being a paint-by-numbers attempt. The only part that kind of makes sense is the idea that Alaric is in the role of prophet; he's done what was foretold: deliver the promised land. Fine, but if that is the case then shouldn't the whole "Ghost Bears can't agree" storyline not make sense? They've had a century of Clan influence in the Rasalhague worlds and it would have made more sense if the Clan half just said "he did it, we're on his side, and if you get in our way we'll kill every last one of you." Instead, it's a short, sweet civil war, and then things are right back to the pre-war status quo, only now Alaric has a huge army to enforce his dreams of a Star League and in the next book or two he'll have his navy once the Snow Ravens decide to back him.

At least they didn't go to tired old trope of "they had a hidden army!"

 

[Balr0g]

At the end of IlClan Trial the Wolves are supposed to have 30 Clusters left (plus 4-5 Warships). That are a few galaxies. The Falcons were down to one clustzer (not counting the Falcon remnants under Jiyi) Also Empire Alone tells us that the League is devouring the Empire with the Dragoons leading the charge absorbing sibkos, cadet cadres and Wolf solahma while also sacking the cpaital world of Gienah.

The Bears make no sense: they always were pportryed as a Clan that doesn't care much about Terra but trather for their own family which is the Dominion now. Also they first expelled their troublemakers to Vega only to take them back into the fold. Like what?

Oh yeah the IlClan era is supposed to last until 3250 because every era ends at one point. The Republic lasted 65 years the IlClan will ast a bit longer and I think that in 3250 the Homeworld Clans come calling because currently they are absent from the storyline (the Scorpions don't count as they are an entire entity for themselves)
Funniest thing would be a resurgent Word of Blake comes back to kick the Clans of holy Terra. there are still Blakists out there after all

Also, i wqished the RAf had fought the Clans with everything they got. And I mean EVERYTHING. They captured so many stuff from the Blakists (like the Wyrm mobile SDS submarine, Rattlers and that huge stockpile of nukes) and you are telling me that most of that was simply forgotten (except the nukes and they made Stone too scared to use them) Which would be the first defender of Terra not to resort to nukes.

 

[William Murderface]

At the end of IlClan Trial the Wolves are supposed to have 30 Clusters left (plus 4-5 Warships). That are a few galaxies. The Falcons were down to one clustzer (not counting the Falcon remnants under Jiyi) Also Empire Alone tells us that the League is devouring the Empire with the Dragoons leading the charge absorbing sibkos, cadet cadres and Wolf solahma while also sacking the cpaital world of Gienah.

Fiar enough. I know the Jags and Falcons are reduced to near nothing, I thought the figure for the Wolves on Terra was only one or two clusters in size, but you're probably right. Without breaking out Tamar Rising or Dominions Divided I can't begin to figure out which clusters are on Terra and which are being beat down by the Mariks. I was exaggerating or just got confused with something else I was reading.

Or just plain hopeful that they had been beat that badly.

Also, i wqished the RAf had fought the Clans with everything they got. And I mean EVERYTHING. They captured so many stuff from the Blakists (like the Wyrm mobile SDS submarine, Rattlers and that huge stockpile of nukes) and you are telling me that most of that was simply forgotten (except the nukes and they made Stone too scared to use them) Which would be the first defender of Terra not to resort to nukes.

I agree completely. Or break out something entirely new and unexpected that the Clanners can't beat with their usual "beat on it until it's dead" approach.

 

[The Demon Pimp of Razgriz]

They've had a century of Clan influence in the Rasalhague worlds and it would have made more sense if the Clan half just said "he did it, we're on his side, and if you get in our way we'll kill every last one of you." Instead, it's a short, sweet civil war, and then things are right back to the pre-war status quo, only now Alaric has a huge army to enforce his dreams of a Star League and in the next book or two he'll have his navy once the Snow Ravens decide to back him.

Except that would make even less sense, since the entire point behind the Ghost Bears Dominion is that they had to compromise with the natives in order to actually maintain control. The stupid part of the actual story is that Ghost Bear didn't just tell Alaric to go fuck himself the minute he literally demanded they massacre their own.

 

[Shakatherapy]

If the “Ilkhan” is so weakened why can’t the Ghost bears just go to Terra and take over instead of letting this idiot tell them what to do?

 

[Corn Flakes]

If the “Ilkhan” is so weakened why can’t the Ghost bears just go to Terra and take over instead of letting this idiot tell them what to do?

Because I'm pretty sure the writing staff these days have no idea how actual politics work.

Or rather, even less of an idea how actual politics work than the original writers, which is an achievement.

 

[StevieLasVegas]

Because Alric is in Clan Plot Armor and heaven forbid they actually get dirt on their faces

 

[Lithos]

And Greta Thunberg doesn't show up at all in the form of Gretchen, a passionate, if inarticulate, social media-savvy AsTech.

No, sir. Not at all.

According to one of the writers supposedly in the room discussing that, the character is based on whatever Chris Crocker of "Leave Brittney Alone Fame" trooned out to. So, if it's not Greta, it's a troon!

Am I the only one who wanted to see the Dominion rocked by more than what happened in DD? Like, all those compromises from the Bears probably had some Warriors chafing and thinking it's about time to go back to the "old ways" and stuff, and then the Freeminders finding an opportunity to take something back. I dunno. The way fans always describe the Bears/Dominion is always in the most perfect of terms.

 

[William Murderface]

According to one of the writers supposedly in the room discussing that, the character is based on whatever Chris Crocker of "Leave Brittney Alone Fame" trooned out to. So, if it's not Greta, it's a troon!

"Leave Devlin alone!"

 

[Balr0g]

Fiar enough. I know the Jags and Falcons are reduced to near nothing, I thought the figure for the Wolves on Terra was only one or two clusters in size, but you're probably right. Without breaking out Tamar Rising or Dominions Divided I can't begin to figure out which clusters are on Terra and which are being beat down by the Mariks. I was exaggerating or just got confused with something else I was reading.

Keep in mind I am not sure if those clusters are even at 100% strength. While replacing lost Mechs should be easy with Terra in their hand getting replacmenet warriors is another story. They could in theory recruit RAF members but they either have joined already when the wolves fought the Falcons or told Alaric to go fuck himself. In essence the pure Wolf warriors are a tiny minority on a planert that houses over 10 billion people. Oh and let's not forget the Falcons lost an entire Galaxy (to the last man no less) trying to conquer Japan. I wonder how that is currently playing out as it was never mentioned what happened to Japan after the IlClan trial

 

[BlackDragoons]

If the “Ilkhan” is so weakened why can’t the Ghost bears just go to Terra and take over instead of letting this idiot tell them what to do?

Fortress Republic is still online, they can pretty much say no you can't come in.

But it is running out of juice and will die soon.